bigglesfandomcom-20200215-history
Slutspel I Kalahari/plot
Biggles is accompanying some hunters on a safari in the Kalahari and makes a radio call to Algy who is flying a passenger/cargo aircraft from Grootfontein to Kang in the Kalahari. They banter about meeting at the club next month but the chat is interrupted when Algy spots an airfield below him. He tries to get a closer look and radio his exact position. The Cardinal needs to protect his nefarious scheme (whatever it is) so orders his aide Captain Rustek to jam Algy's radio. The Cardinal also sends a Messerschmitt Me 109 to intercept Algy and force him to land. The passengers are discharged and Algy is compelled to fly his plane to the Cardinal's secret Orlik Base. Biggles tries to raise Algy but a stampede of wildebeests caused by his clients, a party of hunters, runs through the tent, destroying his transmitter. Bebe Sunday lands her plane with a load of cigars and brandy for the clients but Biggles is upset. He tells her to put the luxuries in a pile and blows them up with a stick of dynamite. He then quits his job as the expedition leader. Bebe tries to raise Algy. The Cardinal forces Algy to call saying he's all right but Biggles is still suspicious. He and Bebe drop off their clients at Johannesburg and return to London. Air Commodore Raymond has a job for Biggles. Sir Giles Rolfe, chairman of an international charitable trust has a problem. The trust had been providing financial support to a certain Professor Ander. He had been developing a nerve gas which can destroy a soldier's will to fight and turn him into a peace-loving weakling. Ander had been working at Vednice Castle in Slavonia, but he had written a letter to his financial patrons in Britain saying he intended to proceed to the Kalahari to conduct tests on his gas. His patron, Sir Giles thinks the letter could be fake--it doesn't sound like the professor. It would be disastrous if the gas falls into the wrong hands, so Biggles is sent to extract the Professor and bring him to Britain. Biggles and Ginger head to Bauerndorff, an Austrian town bordering Slavonia. They hire a Henschel Hs 126 and conduct a night recce of the castle and possible landing spots. They then buy local clothes and drive across the border to Vednice. It's a tourist trap and they mingle easily with the other visitors. At a bar near the castle, they overhear the barman saying the Professor comes daily at 2 p.m. for a drink. He arrives punctually and Ginger is tasked to befriend Ander's minder, a guard named Dmitri and get him drunk. Biggles meanwhile talks to the Professor. The party breaks up with much gaiety and they arrange to meet again. The next day at the bar, Biggles shows his credentials to Ander and tells him he must get to Britain. Ander can't believe he is in danger but agrees to go. Ginger has again done his drinking act so well that the stone drunk Dmitri doesn't notice Biggles accompanying Ander back to the castle and even helps to sneak him past the patrols into Ander's room. From the window, Biggles sends his orders to Ginger by a folded paper plane. Ginger returns to Austria and summons Bebe Sunday for the next phase of the mission. she flies a Hs 126 and hides it at a landing ground near the castle. Ginger drives over and delivers some equipment to Biggles, who has left the castle and swam out to a ruined tower at one end of the castle moat. Ginger then picks Bebe up and they return to Austria. Meanwhile the Professor, on Biggles' instructions, has set up a pattern on innocent outings, rowing a boat in the moat. On D-Day, he tells Dmitri he wants to stop for a visit to the ruined tower. Dmitiri acquieces. The two alight and Biggles knocks out the guard. He and the Professor then put on harnesses tied to a large O-ring. Bebe and Ginger fly over the tower in another Hs 126 and catch the ring with a grappling hook, drawing Biggles and Ander into the air. Two of them then transfer to Bebe's hidden Hs 126 and both aircraft fly to safety in Austria. Departing Vienna for London in a DC-3, Slavonian F-86 Sabres attempt to intercept them but, responding to Biggles' distress call, Austrian Air Force jets beat the intruders off. Back to Britain, Ander is handed over to British intelligence minders. Biggles goes to the club to wait for Algy. He doesn't show up. In the toilet, Biggles slips on a bar of soap. Just as well, for he sees the shadow of a man holding a gun. Outside, no one has seen the assailant. Biggles and Ginger now read in the newspapers that Algy has crashed and is feared dead. The air force is sending out a search party. Back at his base, the Cardinal receives news by radio that his plan to kill Biggles at the club has failed. Biggles might be heading for the Kalahari next. The Cardinal panics. Rustek is ordered to get the secret rocket plane ready for escape. Meanwhile the Cardinal himself fills a valise with piles of money from the safe--he would fly to safety in South America. He then activates the self-destruct mechanism for the base. The Cardinal tells his gang members in the hangar that they would put out white flags and pretend to surrender. When their enemies land, they would then overpower them. Secretly he tells Rustek to load the rocket plane and then pushes his aide away--he needs the second seat for his luggage. Rustek warns the gang that the Cardinal is running away and that they would all be blown up by the self-destruct charge. Rustek's warning triggers a revolt. The Cardinal shoots Rustek. Algy, who had been under guard among the listeners, decides its time to make his move and breaks free of his guards. He runs down some corridors and gets into the Cardinal's office where he deactivates the self-destruct. Coming out again, Algy finds Biggles wearing a gas mask and holding the Cardinal up with a submachine gun. The gang members are singing and seem very jolly. Biggles and Ginger had just landed in a Beaufighter and have used Ander's "peace gas" on the assembly. The Cardinal tricks Algy that a robot is approaching to attack him. Biggles is also distracted, whereupon the Cardinal hits Biggles on the head and then launches off in his rocket plane. On the tarmac, Ginger sees the rocket plane taking off and decides to follow but he is, of course, unable to catch up. Meanwhile the Cardinal has summoned the Me 109 which comes in to intercept. Ginger, however, is able to outfly him and the Messerschmitt crashes among some mountains. Back at Orlik, an R.A.F. search party has landed and the commander tells Biggles the base has been neutralised. The gang members have all laid down their weapons and are singing. Meanwhile Ginger tells the others that the pilot of the Me 109 is one Herr Melitter, He carries a notebook which has been signed by Erich von Stalhein--so he is somehow involved in all this. It appears the Cardinal does not escape after all. The wreckage of his rocket plane is found in the mountains nearby. Either he didn't see the high ground, or else, Biggles speculates, he might have been drowsy from the effect of taking the antidote to the peace gas. They had found such a drug in his office earlier on. Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)